How not to save a squirrel

Friday, May 28, 2010

My daughter is an animal advocate. Which is awesome. But lately we have had very active hunting kitties (not with the bunnies, thank goodness!). They kill and bring us things daily. Birds, rats, voles, mice... you name it, they have tried to kill it.

A few mornings back, I heard a sound in the back yard like a really angry squirrel. That anger then turned into obviously fighting for it's life, and I thought (from my bed, because it was 6am) "Wow... that sucks. Samson finally got a squirrel."

The next sound I heard was hysterical screaming outside. Not squirrel screaming... child screaming. I (of course) FLEW out of my bed, tossing a robe on between the bedroom and the backdoor and went tearing out of the house... to find my daughter, holding a bloody finger and (still)screaming hysterically.

Once I was able to get her calmed down, I found out that she, too, had heard the angry and then scared squirrel, and decided to see if she could free it from the cat. Samson was fine with her taking it from him. (Most of his prizes end up being for us anyhow...) The squirrel however, was NOT ok with being taken from a killers mouth right into a giant monster's hands. Like at all.

Biting for it's life, the squirrel finally got away and darted up the closest tree, leaving my daughter bleeding on the ground... and, in the words of my traumatized daughter "Didn't even turn around to say thank you!!"

(Just in case anyone is worried about infection or rabies, squirrels do not carry rabies. I checked with the CDC and here is the referral link.)

8 comments

Holy cow!! So glad she's okay and didn't lose the finger (or an eye). One time when I was a newbie driver I stopped my car in the middle of a busy street to try to save a chipmunk that had been hit by the car in front of me -- not smart to stop in a busy road and get out for a small animal (and no the chipmunk didn't make it.)

Poor thing, hope she is ok. I love her remark. :) I need to loan you my dogs, the squirrels in our yard have been tormenting them. Last night they caught one of the poor things. I was torn about getting it away from the dogs but now I don't feel quite as bad for not getting there in time.